Friday, January 9, 2009

What are your pets worth to you?

Most people I know don't have pets, at least not as big or as many as we do.

Indiana was my first baby. I got her when I was in Illinois, in response to an attempted break in. She has been with me through so much. She will be 8 years old on the 19th. I love that dog like crazy, so do Loran and the girls.


Indy has been limping for a while and Riley has had an itchy back so I finally took them in yesterday to the vet. We left them there because I wanted their nails trimmed and Indy needed bloodwork and an xray on her knee. Ankica screamed for a long time for "Ee-Ee" and "Ri-Ri".

When I went back to get them, I had to leave Indy there because I could only afford to pay for Riley. Indy was going to cost $420 by herself. I have rearranged funds so I can pick her up today. But the surgery she needs to fix her torn knee? Oh, around $500. So we will be waiting a bit on the surgery, but it will get done.

While we were at the vet with the dogs, a lady had to choose to put her dog down because of serious illness. A vet tech had to take her kids to the play area and the little boy just screamed the whole time.
A few summers ago, a lady came into the vet's office screaming because her dog has jumped into the hot car and she didn't know he was in there. They weren't able to save him.
When I went last night to pick up Riley, a beautiful young Doberman was diagnosed with cancer and would live for only a few more months as normal (at most) and could live for a year or two with lots of meds and surgery.
We almost lost Riley right before Ankica was born because he had gotten into something that caused severe internal nastiness (some hydration and time saved him with thankfully little expense).

The choice of how much we are willing to pay to keep our pets in our lives is a very personal one. I know many of you are thinking "Almost one thousand dollars for a DOG?!?! Is she crazy?!". Maybe we are. But then, is she really JUST a dog?







I love you Indiana!!!

4 comments:

From My Position said...

I'm not sure whether man domesticated dogs, or if it was the other way around.

Laura said...

It is so hard to put a price limit on the love of an animal. Sure many say they are just pets, but really the are part of the family(well our cat believes that she rules the family, but anyways).

Melissa said...

I'm always a little wary of people that DON'T like animals.

Jodi said...

Love those pics of Indy, especially the one in the bandana!

Love jo